Brands beware: Facebook’s latest platform update may throw a wrench into your engagement metrics. Starting next week, users will be able to “Snooze” any person, page or group they choose, temporarily hiding their posts from the News Feed.
“One of our core News Feed values is giving people more control,” writes Shruthi Muraleedharan, product manager at Facebook, in the announcement. “We’ve heard from people that they want more options to determine what they see in News Feed and when they see it.”
The Snooze feature is another incremental personal curation tool—like a less-severe Unfollow. Pages that get Snoozed are hidden from the Snoozer’s News Feed for 30 days, and they’re not notified of the lost views.
For brands, this update puts further importance on producing content they know is relevant, as the incremental Unfollow can hurt viewership and engagement without affecting a Page’s likes or follower numbers.
This comes just a day after significant changes to Facebook’s News Feed ranking algorithm, which will give preferential treatment to Pages with active audiences and repeat viewers.
“With this update, we will show more videos in News Feed that people seek out or return to watch from the same publisher or creator week after week,” writes Maria Angelidou-Smith, Facebook’s product management director. “For example, shows or videos that are part of a series, or from partners who are creating active communities.”
Additionally, Facebook is changing its Ad Break settings, only adding mid-roll video ads at the 60-second mark to videos longer than three minutes. Previously, all videos over 90 seconds were eligible for Ad Break placement, with ads appearing at the 20-second mark.
This change marks a further shift on Facebook’s part toward longer-form video content, and also means that ads displayed in the middle of videos will reach more-invested viewers more likely to sit through the ad than click away. Brands that take a part in Ad Break buys will be able to track both impression and CPM metrics at the video level as well.
Facebook also announced that it will begin testing pre-roll ads for sought-out (outside the News Feed) videos next year, promising six-second slots similar to YouTube’s offerings.
